Ange Postecoglou delivers perfect response to rivals' favourites tag against Celtic

By David Walton

April 3, 2022

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has delivered the perfect dismissive response to the idea that Rangers are favourites for today’s Glasgow derby.

The two sides meet in what could be a title-defining day for the Hoops. 3 points will put us 6 points clear at the top of the Premiership and extend our 31-game unbeaten domestic run.

Yet despite going into this one both top of the league and the form team, many believe Rangers are the favourites. Whilst this is likely simply down to it being at Ibrox, there has been a slight lack of respect shown to Ange and his Bhoys in the build-up.

But Ange delivered the perfect response when asked about our rivals being favourites as he quickly dismissed the whole idea. As quoted by the Daily Record, Ange said: “I wasn’t aware of that (Rangers favourites). I’m not a betting man so I’m not really sure what that means. But since round six in the fixtures this season, we’ve been pretty decent. So I’ll take our form into any game at the moment.

“When you think about what we’ve had to deal with this year and the position we’re in right now, we’ve proved to be a pretty resilient group of players. You can’t do that unless you have a really strong mentality and have tackled every challenge in the right way.

“It doesn’t guarantee you success but it gives you a chance in every game. The players have a really strong sense of purpose now about the type of football we want to play – and the type of team we want to be.”

Ange Postecoglou stands up for his Celtic side on eve of Rangers clash

This is all good stuff from Ange here. Exactly the kind of fighting talk you want from the Celtic manager. Whilst we never want to get complacent or boastful in pre-match build-ups, you want to see the boss showing a bit of fight for his players.

The narrative appears to be all about Rangers getting the result over Celtic. That the Ibrox club can find it within themselves to overcome us and bag a crucial 3 points in the title race.

It feels as though pundit after pundit has been out over the last 7 days trying to explain how Rangers can win the game. It’s become pretty tiresome in truth. There’s a feeling going that there’s real desperation from the outside for Rangers to win this game this afternoon.

However, so much so that Celtic’s incredible domestic run is being lost in the analysis. Not many have been willing to speak about how and why Celtic can win the game this afternoon. Yet we’re the team that goes into today with plenty of plus-points on our side.

That’s the nature of the beast here of course. We all know what the derby build-up is like at this point. It was always going to be plagued with pro-Rangers nonsense. And no surprises then that many will have them down as favourites going into it.

These are the kind of moments Ange thrives on. He loves turning the table and proving people wrong. If he can manage it once again today, Celtic will be in a beautiful place in the title race.

In other news, 6 away-day derby debuts, big Ange call; Celtic predicted XI for today’s rival clash